Echinocentric @Echinocentric@qoto.org

The first article from my dissertation research has been accepted!

I know that they say
the public health emergency
is now over
but on the news I heard them say
“We now have evidence
that COVID
decreases our immune response,
making us susceptible
to infections”
which certainly makes it seem
like our emergency
is only just beginning.

When they ask you
(and they will ask you)
what it is that you accomplished
in the course of this year
keep in mind that you
survived the fourth year
of the pandemic
and that
is accomplishment enough.

Liberty, patriot, family, America, proud…

These are words I would like back, please.

Hey automaker CEOs—meet the demands of your workers. Also, take a pay cut. You’re not 600 times more valuable than anyone, especially those in your factories. #news

The WHO’s message
is quite clear:
“if you’re due
for an additional dose
of COVID-19 vaccine,
don’t wait,
get it now,
especially if you’re in
an at risk group”
which is the type of message
you emphatically send
when you know
the emergency isn’t really over.

They say
we have the tools
they insist
we have the tools
but they fail to mention
that we
do not all have the insurance
and that we
do not all have the money
which are necessary
to obtain the tools
they keep telling us
that we have.

Demanding RCTs is great for bad faith arguments because there's many circumstances in which they can't or shouldn't be done.

"Do an RCT for causing cancer!" So, what, a 1,000,000-person clinical trial for 20 years with the goal of causing cancer? Neither feasible nor ethical.

https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1695104021638287361

Donald Trump selling assets like Mar-a-Lago to a shell company owned by his oldest son is exactly what innocent people do

Trump isn’t a flight risk

He’s a flight guarantee.

"I kind of wish America’s elite liberal institutions would be elite liberal institutions, because they seem to spend a lot of time helping bad actors thrive. Harvard and Yale, to take two examples, have a lot to answer for. (Vivek and DeSantis and J.D. Vance and Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and so many of the worst people in public life these days.)"

~ Jonathan V. Last

Big amen. And all those ivy-league schools: all north of Richmond.

#IvyLeagues #education #demagogues

https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/mugged-by-demagoguery

This is what you call a “cult of personality.” These voters believe Trump more than their own friends and family, and far more than their clergy. Sad!

How can we possibly expect folks to understand the emergence of new #COVID variants given most lack a basic understanding of evolution?
#science #health

If you are concerned
about the reports
that the virus is surging again
open a newspaper
there you will find
the people who assured you
that the pandemic is over
(the people who keep assuring you
that the pandemic is over)
back to tell you
that after this wave
it’ll really be over.

My friend across the pond
sent me a headline which read
“UK almost ‘flying blind’
on Covid this autumn,
experts say,”
and the same headline
could certainly be written here
though there would be no need
to include the word “almost.”

While updating a document
I checked a link
one that was meant to take me
to my employer’s COVID policies
but all that greeted me there
was a plain page and the words
“Not Found”
which, in my employer’s defense,
is really quite accurate.

When the billionaire declared
“this has gone on long enough”
I agreed with him, as I too
think that the pandemic
“has gone on long enough”
but then he added
“the pandemic is over”
and I realized he was talking
about remote work
which reminded me
why I don’t listen to billionaires.

If I had a dollar
for every week that I have started
by seeing an article
announcing (at long last!)
the end of the pandemic
I would have so much money
that I could afford
to buy all of you
enough high-quality masks
to make it through
the rest of the pandemic.

Gary Busey has a tv show called Pet Judge and finding that out has made me angrier than ever that Elon’s promise to have us on Mars by now turned out to just be a figment of his inflated ego.

CNN & FOX News have done to our parents exactly what they thought Marylin Manson and violent video games would do to us.

Some of you need a reminder that trans women are women and trans men are men, even if it makes you feel funny in your no-no parts. #TransRightsAreHumanRights